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McPhee details the strategies and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking in his vivid depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those who would attempt to wrest control from her--stubborn, often ingenious, and always arresting characters.

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So far my favorite McPhee book and one of my favorite books of all time. This book is funny as words I can't say in a rated G environment. It's the story of 20th century projects taken on by groups of people in the face of overwhelming odds and often with human life in the balance. There are three rip-roaring tales told in literary journalism style tied together by a central theme. If your the type of person who thinks the lengths we humans go to in the engineering world is sometimes too far you will love this book.